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home / early years / big time / NZ INTERVIEW / pressures / enough is enough / AFTER THE PRETTIES/ later years |
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It was called Midnight To Six Man, and apparently was written precisely between those hours. Brian recalled a slightly different timescale; however Eleven To Five Man didn't really have the same appeal as a name. What is for certain is that much care and attention was given to the production of this track than had been given to any of their previous work; it was recorded again and again to make sure they had it just right. They were repaid artistically; Midnight is a stunning record from start to finish with its urgent drum opening (courtesy of new recruit Skip Alan), the atmospheric presence of a Hammond organ, one of Dick Taylor's best solos and Brian's strong rhythm playing providing a solid background throughout. Unfortunately, and it does seem unfair as it was such a good track, the song spent one week in the lower reaches of the Top 50 before vanishing out of sight. In future years it would be rightly recognised as one of the great records of its time, but that was no help to them then. Similarly, their second album Get The Picture, which strangely didn't feature Midnight To Six Man although it is on the CD version available these days, also failed to chart, although in those days the album chart was only a Top 10 in any case so this may not have been considered as much a disaster as the commercial failure of their last two The band were persuaded to foot the bill for a short film showing them capering around London in between footage of them playing in the studio and at the 100 Club. This 15 minute effort, Pretty Things On Film, has been described as a total waste of time and money and understandably so, nevertheless I beg to offer a different view. With the tragedy of many of the Pretties' sixties TV recordings being either destroyed or of such poor quality it detracts from the pleasure of viewing them, On Film is a valuable piece of footage that should be treasured. For this reason I really value my copy, on the CD of Get The Picture. Brian looks at his most gorgeous here, his immaculate hair at its longest and, ever the Jazz man, is sat on a stool and wearing a cardigan during the studio clip of the band playing Midnight. In fact his guitar skills are more than apparent in this film and he rightly panned the director (whom he described in his interview as 'a total w*nker') for overdubbing the live performances with studio takes. Nevertheless Brian obviously did consider the film to be a waste of time and money, and this is more than apparent when you see the look on his face as the band wave Bryan Morrison off as his plane takes off without them; he is clearly thinking: “How on earth did I get dragged into this nonsense?” Maybe this was the point where Brian was beginning to think that his days in the Pretty Things were numbered. He did manage to raise a smile, however, in January 1966 when the Pretties guested on a TV show called 'A Whole Scene Going', aimed at under-21s and featuring a 'problem page' type scenario where a girl relates the sad tale of her boyfriend getting torn apart by girls who won't believe he isn't Phil May due to their similarity in appearance (and probably made up by a BBC employee). Brian smiles as he hears this, then the band, with new drummer Skip Alan, perform Midnight To Six Man to polite applause; Brian playing his white Telecaster, either forgetting or choosing not to join in with the second chorus and looking very attractive with his always immaculate hair and his slim build accentuated by his striped trousers; after many photoshoots where he would persistently wear a tie and jacket, Mr Pendleton was now looking seriously groovy! But looking groovy unfortunately didn't sell records. Their next single, Come See Me, although lacking the total brilliance of Midnight, was still a great track and certainly deserved a Top 20 placing. In the event it got into the Top 50, but it was the spontaneous B-side, LSD, written by Phil May and Dick Taylor, which got the media attention and a BBC ban. The single take of this track is a mini-masterpiece and shows just what the band were capable of at their brilliant best. They insisted it was to do with pounds, shillings and pence but of course no-one was having any of it. Several appearances on foreign (particularly Dutch) television proved that they were still popular but they just couldn't convert this popularity into UK chart success. An ill- The pressure on Brian must have been immense. He was sick of life on the road. The hits had dried up. His family hated him being a pop star and would have preferred him to have kept his 'proper' job in insurance; his father even wanted him to change his name! He was a married man and by now also the father of a young son. If being a pop star couldn't support a young family, then what was he to do? The heavy drinking he indulged in to ease the pressure of life as a Pretty Thing and all it entailed could not have helped. Exhausted, broke and broken down, there was only one solution. |
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